[gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[Alexander Kapshuk]

I've had to replace my GPU today. Prior to attempting to start X with
the new GPU in, I thought I'd pull in the latest updates and reboot the
system. X wouldn't start as a result. I've googled for answers, but
haven't found a solution so far.

Here's the information that may be useful in narrowing down the problem.
I'd appreciate any input that'll guide me in the right direction.

Linux box1 3.12.13-gentoo #1 SMP Sun Mar 30 18:44:26 EEST 2014 i686
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3
equery -q u x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers
+X
+acpi
-pax_kernel
+tools
-uvm

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce
210] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 8a93
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
    Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
    Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at f4000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
    I/O ports at b000 [size=128]
    [virtual] Expansion ROM at f7000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
    Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
    Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
    Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
    Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
    Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1
Len=024 <?>
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    Kernel modules: nvidia

dmesg
[    4.480310] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  334.21  Thu
Feb 27 15:04:33 PST 2014
[    4.979692] NVRM: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x25:0xffffffff:1155)
[    4.979705] NVRM: rm_init_adapter failed for device bearing minor
number 0
[    4.979712] NVRM: nvidia_frontend_open: minor 0, module->open()
failed, error -5


Xorg.0.log
[    56.339] Current Operating System: Linux box1 3.12.13-gentoo #1 SMP
Sun Mar 30 18:44:26 EEST 2014 i686
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    56.454] Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA GPU at
PCI:1:0:0.  Please
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     check your system's kernel log for
additional error
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     messages and refer to Chapter 8:
Common Problems in the
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     README for additional information.
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA
graphics device!
[    57.192] (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failing initialization of X screen 0
[    57.192] (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
[    57.192] (EE)
[    57.192] (EE) no screens found(EE)
[    57.192] (EE)
[    57.192] (EE) Please also check the log file at
"/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[    57.192] (EE)
[    57.196] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

Re: [gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[Michael Orlitzky]

On 04/14/2014 07:39 AM, Alexander Kapshuk wrote:
> I've had to replace my GPU today. Prior to attempting to start X with
> the new GPU in, I thought I'd pull in the latest updates and reboot the
> system. X wouldn't start as a result. I've googled for answers, but
> haven't found a solution so far.

Nvidia dropped support for the GeForce 210 in their 334 series. It's
still there in the 331 series, though, if you want to downgrade.

Same thing happened to me a while ago with my old 7800GT. I don't have
any reason to buy a new GPU, so I switched to nouveau.

Reference: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html (pick a version, and
hit "Supported Products").

Re: [gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[Alexander Kapshuk]

On 04/15/2014 04:18 AM, Michael Orlitzky wrote:
> On 04/14/2014 07:39 AM, Alexander Kapshuk wrote:
>> I've had to replace my GPU today. Prior to attempting to start X with
>> the new GPU in, I thought I'd pull in the latest updates and reboot the
>> system. X wouldn't start as a result. I've googled for answers, but
>> haven't found a solution so far.
> Nvidia dropped support for the GeForce 210 in their 334 series. It's
> still there in the 331 series, though, if you want to downgrade.
>
> Same thing happened to me a while ago with my old 7800GT. I don't have
> any reason to buy a new GPU, so I switched to nouveau.
>
> Reference: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html (pick a version, and
> hit "Supported Products").
>
>
>
Thanks for your response. Apologies for the delay in replying.

After googling a bit more I did figure that the problem was with the
proprietary driver I was using.
I did try downgrading to some of these drivers, but to no avail, unless
I did something wrong in the process:
/usr/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers/nvidia-drivers-304.121.ebuild
/usr/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers/nvidia-drivers-331.49-r3.ebuild
/usr/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers/nvidia-drivers-331.49.ebuild
/usr/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers/nvidia-drivers-331.67.ebuild

What I ended up doing was using the
x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.10 driver.
I set these up in my kernel .config:
CONFIG_DRM_NOUVEAU=y
CONFIG_NOUVEAU_DEBUG=5
CONFIG_NOUVEAU_DEBUG_DEFAULT=3
CONFIG_DRM_NOUVEAU_BACKLIGHT=y

Enabled nouveau and disabled nvidia in make.conf:
egrep 'nvidia|nouveau' /etc/portage/make.conf
USE="$USE -nvidia consolekit pam policykit udisks upower acpi lm_sensors"
VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau"

And ran:
emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world

The new driver's been running OK so far.
Playing videos via vlc/mplayer seems to run smooth.
Some youtube videos are a bit choppy, and/or delayed though. Not sure if
it's the nouveau driver to blame or the fact that I've got 1 Gb of RAM
onboard.

Should I have enabled the nouveau USE flag globally in make.conf like I
previously did for nvidia, or is that not necessary?

If there is something else I should be doing, or something I overlooked,
I'd appreciate anyone letting me know.

Thanks.

Re: [gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[Michael Orlitzky]

On 04/16/2014 09:14 AM, Alexander Kapshuk wrote:
> 
> The new driver's been running OK so far.
> Playing videos via vlc/mplayer seems to run smooth.
> Some youtube videos are a bit choppy, and/or delayed though. Not sure if
> it's the nouveau driver to blame or the fact that I've got 1 Gb of RAM
> onboard.

It may be from the RAM/CPU if the video is high-resolution. Nouveau
still has to do a lot of things in software that the proprietary driver
does in hardware. If sys-process/htop shows 100% CPU or RAM usage,
that's probably it. To rule out the network you can try net-misc/youtube-dl.


> Should I have enabled the nouveau USE flag globally in make.conf like I
> previously did for nvidia, or is that not necessary?

Not necessary (there's no nouveau USE flags at the moment).

Re: [gentoo-user] re: nVidia GeForce 210 and nvidia-drivers-334.21-r3

[Alexander Kapshuk]

On 04/16/2014 05:06 PM, Michael Orlitzky wrote:
> On 04/16/2014 09:14 AM, Alexander Kapshuk wrote:
>> The new driver's been running OK so far.
>> Playing videos via vlc/mplayer seems to run smooth.
>> Some youtube videos are a bit choppy, and/or delayed though. Not sure if
>> it's the nouveau driver to blame or the fact that I've got 1 Gb of RAM
>> onboard.
> It may be from the RAM/CPU if the video is high-resolution. Nouveau
> still has to do a lot of things in software that the proprietary driver
> does in hardware. If sys-process/htop shows 100% CPU or RAM usage,
> that's probably it. To rule out the network you can try net-misc/youtube-dl.
>
>
>> Should I have enabled the nouveau USE flag globally in make.conf like I
>> previously did for nvidia, or is that not necessary?
> Not necessary (there's no nouveau USE flags at the moment).
>
>
Understood. Thanks. I'll check those options out.